Yesterday I wrote about the end of the laundrette on Beech Road.
Its passing says much about how we live today. Most people have a washing machine and are not over keen to trek with a bag of dirty washing to have it made clean in the company of strangers.
But even with a machine at home we all still use them. The obvious moment is when the washing machine breaks down and that dread panic settles like snow on the household. That which we take for granted is no more and in our house a fierce competition develops over whose washing has a priority.
And then there are the duvets, most are too big to fit into a domestic washing machine but can be comfortably contained in the big ones at the laundrette. There also those young professionals whose busy lives demand that they give up this basic chore to others which I suppose brings us almost full circle to the old laundries. In the case of Soap Opera this included an optional ironing service. And not everyone does own their own washing machine.
But as I found out yesterday from the BBC News Magazine, “The rise and fall of the laundrette”, August 13th 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10957093 one of the prime reasons for the demise of the laundrette is the cost in setting up in business. It can cost anything between £60,000 and £100, 00.
And the cost of repairing a machine is very expensive which according to local historian Ida Bradshaw is what did for the Soap Opera. Repairing the machines was just not viable option and nor was buying new.
So the Soap Opera has gone and I think it will be missed. On the rare occasion I went in people knew each other and were happy to pass the time away as the sheets and towels went round the tumble drier.
And in its way it marks one more step away from the old Beech Road where there were the practical everyday shops, be they the butcher, the green grocer or the baker. Now don’t get me wrong this is not a charge against the collection of wine bars, restaurants and craft and art shops but an observation on the passing of something.
On the other hand the laundrette on Beech Road had replaced the grocery shop of John Williams and Sons a picture of which appeared in the story What we have lost which I posted last year http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-we-have-lost.html
Picture; The Maypole laundrette in 1965 which replaced the grocer’s shop on the corner of Beech and Wilton Roads, from the collection of Tom Craven, made available by Bernard Leech
Its passing says much about how we live today. Most people have a washing machine and are not over keen to trek with a bag of dirty washing to have it made clean in the company of strangers.
But even with a machine at home we all still use them. The obvious moment is when the washing machine breaks down and that dread panic settles like snow on the household. That which we take for granted is no more and in our house a fierce competition develops over whose washing has a priority.
And then there are the duvets, most are too big to fit into a domestic washing machine but can be comfortably contained in the big ones at the laundrette. There also those young professionals whose busy lives demand that they give up this basic chore to others which I suppose brings us almost full circle to the old laundries. In the case of Soap Opera this included an optional ironing service. And not everyone does own their own washing machine.
But as I found out yesterday from the BBC News Magazine, “The rise and fall of the laundrette”, August 13th 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10957093 one of the prime reasons for the demise of the laundrette is the cost in setting up in business. It can cost anything between £60,000 and £100, 00.
And the cost of repairing a machine is very expensive which according to local historian Ida Bradshaw is what did for the Soap Opera. Repairing the machines was just not viable option and nor was buying new.
So the Soap Opera has gone and I think it will be missed. On the rare occasion I went in people knew each other and were happy to pass the time away as the sheets and towels went round the tumble drier.
And in its way it marks one more step away from the old Beech Road where there were the practical everyday shops, be they the butcher, the green grocer or the baker. Now don’t get me wrong this is not a charge against the collection of wine bars, restaurants and craft and art shops but an observation on the passing of something.
On the other hand the laundrette on Beech Road had replaced the grocery shop of John Williams and Sons a picture of which appeared in the story What we have lost which I posted last year http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-we-have-lost.html
Picture; The Maypole laundrette in 1965 which replaced the grocer’s shop on the corner of Beech and Wilton Roads, from the collection of Tom Craven, made available by Bernard Leech
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